Jindal: Jimmy Carter, You're Not the Worst President Ever Anymore

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal opened his speech Thursday to the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington with a "heartfelt and sincere apology" to Jimmy Carter for calling him "the worst president of this great country in my lifetime."

That mantle, the Republican governor said, now belongs to President Barack Obama.

"I spent a lot of 2012 going around the country saying that President Obama was the most liberal and most incompetent president in my lifetime ever since Jimmy Carter," Jindal said.

"Now, having witnessed the events abroad these last several days," Jindal said it was horrifying for America to be "seeing a president who doesn't understand that a weak America leads to instability, seeing a president who doesn't seem to understand that our allies and enemies alike need and want a strong America."

"We have long thought and said this president is a smart man; it may be time to revisit that assumption," Jindal added. "Or at least to make a distinction between being book smart and being truly wise."

And then he issued his apology.

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"Let it be heard, and I hope he’s watching, to President Carter: I want to issue a sincere apology," he said. "It is no longer fair to say he was the worst president of this great country in my lifetime. President Obama has proven me wrong."

In June 2012, in Rosemont, Ill., Jindal slammed Obama as "the most liberal, most incompetent president in the White House since Jimmy Carter," the National Journal reported at the time.

Jindal used most of his CPAC speech to talk about school choice in Louisiana and religious liberty, slamming the Obama administration on both issues.

"I’m not for lawsuits, and I’m not about suing people, but we’ve got a constitutional scholar as president," he told the crowd. "Strikes me he might benefit, we might benefit if he actually reads the Constitution now and then."

Jindal's school voucher program is the focus of a lawsuit in Louisiana.

The governor said the controversy that erupted over the popular reality show "Duck Dynasty" illustrated how the administration also runs afoul of the Constitution on religious freedom.

"This president seems to believe that our religious rights, our First Amendment rights, start and end in the pews on Sunday," Jindal said. "It is amazing, I knew this administration didn’t like the Second Amendment to the Constitution; I thought they might still like the First."

Jindal talked about his "standing up to defend the ‘Duck Dynasty’ family when they got in a little bit of trouble," referring to the A&E network's suspension of family patriarch Phil Robertson after he made controversial remarks about gays in a magazine interview.

"You may have thought I was defending the Robertson family because they’re from Louisiana …. But the reality is this: I stood up for their right to speak up and articulate their beliefs because I am tired of the left. I’m tired of the left that claims they’re tolerant, claims they’re for diversity and they are, they’re tolerant and they’re for diversity except when you dare to disagree with them."